This foolproof Vodka All Butter Pie Crust is flakey and buttery! It is the solution to all your pie crust woes!
“A little vodka for the pie crust, a little for me…” Any excuse these days, amiright?
See baking is fun!
In this video I make the dough using a stand mixer method but if you want to explore all the other methods you could possibly use, check out my playlist on YouTube or read the post here.
While the vodka doesn’t really add a flavor to the dough, it has two jobs! The first is to hinder gluten development and the second is to add moisture that will evaporate in the oven!
The additional moisture from the vodka will make this feel like a wetter dough and your first inclination might be to panic, but don’t worry it will all work out in the end! Trust me. I’ve got you.
Do not be fooled by the name, the same rules apply as my other All Butter Pie Crust. We are going to revisit them just as a refresher. Feel free to skip them if you’re already a pie crust ninja!
The 3 Cardinal Rules for Pie Crust
Keep it cold: This is the theme that runs through the whole process from the moment you scale your ingredients to the moment when you put the pie in the oven. Keep. It. COLD.
Your butter should absolutely be cold (not frozen), your water should be ice cold and your vodka should be frozen. This makes sneaking a shot easier too…?
Work Quickly: This serves two purposes: the first is to keep your ingredients cold and the second is to restrict the amount of gluten that develops in your pastry. Cut your butter in as quickly as the method will allow; keep your focus while adding your water; and when gathering the dough into one cohesive mass, only work it just until it comes together.
Bake it Hot: When you take cold pastry dough that has little pockets and sheets of cold butter, and you pop it into a screaming hot oven, the water will evaporate and the butter will melt creating flakey layers.
Gluten makes my world go round...
Let’s talk about gluten. The first 2 rules exist almost exclusively to control the amount of gluten formation. Huh? Okay, I’ll break it down for you.
Gluten is two proteins that are found in wheat that, when hydrated and agitated, form a felt-like network. They are responsible for the structure in your pie crust. You need a certain amount of gluten to create a flakey crust that won’t just crumble or fall apart after slicing. But gluten is also what makes your pastry shrink or become tough when it should be delicate.
There are several key steps in pastry making that are all about making sure only the appropriate amount of gluten forms. Gluten forms best in a warm environment, so back to the #1 rule of keeping it cold. Cutting in the butter coats some of those gluten strands so that they cannot form a tight, cohesive network.
This brings us to the second rule of pastry. You need to work quickly once you begin adding the water because gluten needs to be hydrated before it forms. The faster you work and the colder your water, the less gluten has a chance to form.
And now that you understand gluten and its integral, yet complicated, role that it plays in pastry, you can understand why I use pastry flour. Different flours have different gluten contents. How do you spot the difference?
Look at the nutritional values. The lower the protein content, the lower the gluten content. Easy peasy.
I use a pastry flour or a lower gluten All Purpose flour (like King Arthur) for my pastry doughs because it contains a relatively low amount of gluten when compared to all-purpose or bread flour. Never use bread flour. Please. Promise me that one thing. .
My recipe is by weight. Weigh your ingredients for the most consistent, best results. The different methods of measuring flour into a dry measuring cup vary by ½ cup.
A HALF a CUP!
Think of all that extra gluten in there and how you don’t have any additional butter to coat the strands! Think of how tough and elastic that pie crust will be. So sad.
Let’s not set ourselves up for failure. Weigh your ingredients. Pretty please.
Vodka All Butter Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons Sugar
- 1 cup Butter (cubed)
- ¼ cup Vodka (frozen)
- ¼ cup Ice Water
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, salt, sugar and butter. On low speed cut the butter into the flour until you have some larger pieces but most of the butter has worked into the flour. You will notice that the flour will change color and be slightly darker.
- Stop the mixer and pour the vodka over the top of the crust. Turn the mixer back on low and slowly pour the water over the crust. Mix on low until the flour has hydrated but a cohesive dough has not yet formed.
- Turn out onto a countertop and press gently until a dough forms. It will be a little wet, but that is ok! Divide the dough in half. Press out into disks and wrap in plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate until cold, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days. Alternatively you can freeze it for up to 2 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator before using. Make sure to keep it cold!
Video Instructions
Since Vodka is alcohol and won’t freeze, how do you get frozen vodka?
I just mean keep it in the freezer! Happy pie-making! 🙂
Hi! Can I use a food processor? My kitchen aide is packed in storage so I have either a hand mixer or the food processor
Absolutely! You can follow the instructions for using a food processor in this post or watch my Youtube video. Happy baking!
Your other tutorial on crust 5 ways recommends pastry flour, would that make a difference in this recipe?
Great question, Mary! You could absolutely use pastry flour in this recipe. It just has a slightly lower gluten content then all-purpose. I wrote this recipe for the broadest audience and not everyone has pastry flour on hand. The vodka in this recipe helps combat some of that extra gluten in the AP flour. It moistens without strengthening the gluten network. Use whichever you would like. This is the actual recipe I use for the pies I sell on my shop and I use AP flour for mass production. Happy baking!
How long does the crust need to sit out before rolling? That seems to be the hardest part for me.
Hi Mary! This dough I don't let sit before rolling. I find that the extra moisture allows me to roll it straight from the fridge. What exactly is happening with your dough? If you give me a little more information, I can be more helpful.
Should I use unsalted or salted butter?
Thanks
Unsalted! I always bake with unsalted so I can control the salt. If you only have salted butter, then omit the kosher salt in the recipe as written! Happy baking!
Your instructions say to use pastry flour or a lower gluten AP but "lower" is pretty vague and the ingredient list simply states AP. Can you please identify what protein level you are looking for.
You can tell by looking at the protein content and comparing different brands. White Lilly has lower protein content than others.
Tons of useful information here thank you for writing this! Do you recommend baking this crust at all prior to adding fillings? I've always had trouble deciding when to blind bake
Hi Matt! It depends on the pie you are making. Absolutely if you are making a pie with a filling that is not baked at all (i.e. banana cream pie or chiffon pies) or in a pie that bakes at a low temperature (i.e. pecan pie or pumpkin pie). If you are going to bake a pie that bakes at 350 or higher then you don't need to par bake it. I hope that helps! Happy pie baking!